The race for football in the Champions League is the main point of interest during the Premier League meeting, and the Challengers Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa experienced mixed fortunes on Saturday.
Manchester City started the day in front of the top five, with a fifth place good enough for a place at the European football table next season, but settled in style by beating Crystal Palace 5-2.
City had decreased 2-0 by goals from Ebelechi Eze and Chris Richards, however, after Eze was excluded for the offside, Kevin de Bruyne orchestrated a beautiful reversal.
From Bruyne, who will leave City at the end of the season, halved the deficit with a free kick of the 33rd minute, then baked a head down for Omar Marmoush at the level three minutes later. The Belgian is up to Mateo Kovacic to reach 3-2 two minutes after restarting, and other goals from James McATEE and Nico O’Reilly insured points.
This result saw City moving over Newcastle United and Chelsea, who each play on Sunday, and surrounded the pressure on the forest in third.
The response of the men of Nuno Espírito Santo was not the one he wanted.
Forest of Nottingham 0-1 Everton
The forest was the surprise package of the Premier League this season, but they suffered a loss with Villa last week and were again far from their best on the city of the city.
Everton, not mathematically sure, but anything but sure of survival after a resurgence under David Moyes, dominated the competition.
And they finally obtained their reward in the 94th minute when Abdoulaye Doucoure broke the winner of the establishment of Dwight McNeil.
Forest’s second successive defeat was amplified by events on the southern coast.
Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa
Aaron Ramsdale saved two Marco Asensio penalties but could not prevent Villa from strengthening their aspirations from finishing in the top five with three goals in the second half.
Ramsdale denied Asensio for the first time in the 69th minute after Jan Bednarek had made a mistake on Ollie Watkins.
Watkins shot the bar to give Villa the advance four minutes later, with their advantage and then doubled by Donyell Malen.
Asensio failed to atone for his previous kick when he saw another out of the way out by Ramsdale in the 94th minute, but John McGinn fell to the rebound to top a comfortable victory over the already relegated saints.
The victory goes to Villa in fifth, at only three points behind the forest. They and City will both jumped by Chelsea and Newcastle on Sunday if they beat Ipswich Town and Manchester United respectively.
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Leicester City
Brighton’s hopes to play European football in 2025-26 suffered a blow because they failed to beat Leicester in the second-end, despite a pair of penalties by Joao Pedro.
Joao Pedro converted 12 meters to the 31st minute and again in the 55th minute, these goals coming from each side of the equalizer of the 38th minute of Stephy Mavididi.
The goal of Mavididi scored the first of Leicester in the Premier League since his 2-1 victory in Tottenham on January 26.
And the Foxes found the second they needed to claim a rare point in what probably seems to be a futile battle against the decline, the diving head of Carlos Okoli won a part of the booty.
Brighton is ninth, at 48 points with Fulham in eighth after playing one more game. The eighth will probably be sufficiently secure in the conference league for next season with English teams still in the three European competitions this season and the city, the forest and the villa in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
